Elder Alex Bennett's Mission Blog

Monday, September 12, 2011 2:14
Hello family! I absolutely lovedddd the Reeses package that you sent and the inflatable pillow and M&M's, thank you, thank you, It was way cool to be in the office at that moment, you get things a lot sooner than if you were out anywhere else :) Oh wait, me in the office... what!.. I have a lot of news for you today, I will start with the biggest tid bit of info.... I am now an Office Elder! It was a surprise to me too! My Tomsk zone and I were on a bike ride last P-day and our phone rang. Elder Peterson and I thought it was to check how his leg was doing but it was actually to let me know that I was coming in to the office and that I was going to be leaving Tomsk a little earlier than the actual transfer date to receive some training here. It was funny, he asked me if I was on the bike still so I wouldn't fall off when he told me the news that he had. So yeah, that's where I have been since Thursday afternoon. Novosibirsk is huge and it's a totally different scene than Tomsk is. My new companion is Elder Kelly, he's great. He's from Orem and his dad was a Mission president over the Moscow mission about a decade or so ago. He is very funny and we watched a lot of the same t.v. shows and movies that I did. He is hilarious and very witty, i'm really lucky to be with him. We have been in a companionship of 3 because Elder Capps was Elder Kelly's companion before me and E. Capps has been showing me the ropes. They're both so awesome and I'm so grateful for my opportunity to work with them. Also, huge news, I am heading on Visa Trip tomorrow morning and I am the travel leader. It will be fun to go to the land of elvish language and delicious Finnish chocolate. Oh and by the way, I am going to try to send something from Finland through the Pochta there. It is so crazy, in a few minutes we are going to Carl's Jr..... let me repeat... CARL'S JR.!!!! Ahhhhhh, I'm soooo excited! That's the bonus to living in a big city. :) Random thought... That is crazy that Clint is home!!! I remember the day that I went with Colton to say good-bye to him. Let him know I say hello and I'm so proud of him. Let the kids know that I love them and that their pictures that they sent to me are fantastic. I told Olga that you were grateful and I showed her the email that you sent me. She said that it was very cool that you did that and she was thankful for you. Her daughter Sonya called me at the time that I was at the Aftovoksal to head to Novosibirsk to tell me good-bye. She sounded really sad and it really brought a tear to my eye and reminded me of the kids and how hard it was to tell them goodbye when I left. Hope Mike is doing great in school, it sounds like he's having fun with his small business and dropping phones in pools.. This is for him, on our way back from the branch building on Sunday, there was a group of Indian Flute players from Bolivia and they were selling cds. It reminded me of the time that we were in that mall and Mike bought that dang ocarina that he never played :) Just kidding. I guarantee that my email next time will be much better and longer hopefully. I love you all sooooo very much! Have a wonderful week won'tcha! - With tons of love. Elder Bennett